Can my employer reduce my hours
Comments
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I'm in a similar position. My employer wants to reduce my hours in order to create a job for a new employee. Can he do this?
Tricky one but in my opinion no he cant, reducing hours has to have good reason ie financia; problems. Reducing your hours and employing someone else to do those hours is completly rediculous!0 -
Update!
Right my boss told me last night that he was going to have to reduce my hours from 39.5 to 28 as of the first of March.
He is now saying as he discussed this with me on the 8th of January (at this stage it was just an idea, we also discussed me changing my role so I could do sales and therefore contribute to the companies profit) and sent an email to confirm the conversation (which is very vague) he is and I quote
"not simply changing your contract as we have been through a period of consultation (I met with you all and wrote to you to confirm the meeting and the possibility this would happen) and I have given you reasonable notice of my intention to change your terms of contract and the reasons why this needs to happen."
Am I still right in thinking because he would have to give me 7 weeks notice (which if this counts as his email as of the 8th Jan that would take me up to the end of this month) as I have still not agreed to the changes, he would be in breech of our contract if he goes ahead and implements it anyway?
Because as far as I am aware I have had nothing to agree to until last night when he confirmed he would be cutting my hours and officially telling me what they are?0 -
I'm guessing that you arent in a Union to ask them - in that case try hunting round the T.U.C. website on the workers rights section to see what info there might be on this.
The TUC has a range of leaflets - viewable on line - and has recently produced new ones to cope with the type of changes employers are trying to impose at present.
The leaflet "Coping with the economic downturn" produced in December 2008 sounds like the right sort of title to look at:
http://www.tuc.org.uk/extras/downturn.pdf0 -
Update!
Right my boss told me last night that he was going to have to reduce my hours from 39.5 to 28 as of the first of March.
He is now saying as he discussed this with me on the 8th of January (at this stage it was just an idea, we also discussed me changing my role so I could do sales and therefore contribute to the companies profit) and sent an email to confirm the conversation (which is very vague) he is and I quote
"not simply changing your contract as we have been through a period of consultation (I met with you all and wrote to you to confirm the meeting and the possibility this would happen) and I have given you reasonable notice of my intention to change your terms of contract and the reasons why this needs to happen."
Am I still right in thinking because he would have to give me 7 weeks notice (which if this counts as his email as of the 8th Jan that would take me up to the end of this month) as I have still not agreed to the changes, he would be in breech of our contract if he goes ahead and implements it anyway?
Because as far as I am aware I have had nothing to agree to until last night when he confirmed he would be cutting my hours and officially telling me what they are?
Did he back up your original meeting in writing? if so that was the beginning of the consultation, and I have never heard of having to give seven weeks notice, as far as I am aware it is a reasonable time, I.E 30 days?0 -
My employer told me 10 days ago that I was to lose hours off my contract as a new job is being created for someone else. I don't know how many hours exactly or when it is going to happen. HR have been in to talk to him about the new role but he hasn't mentioned anything else to me - just left me in 'limbo land'. Can he treat me like this - leaving me anxious, unsettled and losing the will to fight, which I know I need to. I only work 26 hours a week so any cut in pay will leave me desperate financially. Is what he is doing legal - it is not obviously a financial decision or an operational decision as I always have first class appraisals and even top praise from contacts outside our organisation. Can anybody advise please. Thank youPlease help - anybody out there?0 -
Hi Ben
I dont know the legal position re whether your boss can do this or no - hopefully someone will come along that can tell you - I suggest you ask legal advice on this (have you got a legal insurance add-on to your household policy you can ask?). Otherwise try Citizens Advice Bureau and/or the TUC website to see if theres any answers there to this.
Good luck.
I understand what you mean by "limboland" - so I suggest you try and seek out what legal advice you can find about your position - maybe a quick browse through the law section in a decent local bookshop for books on workers rights? In the (very) slightly longer-term - I did notice on the TUC website that they have an up-to-date book for sale on workers rights (think it was about £9?) and think its probably well worth buying for someone who still has a noticeable number of years left to retirement - such as yourself. It will hopefully give you the advice you need now - and will keep you up to speed for any other employment problems that come up from here on in.
Once you have done this and know where you stand legally - then its possibly the best thing to "bring it to a head" by going back to your employer directly and asking what "the state of play" is in his head and telling him your position (ie you'll fight - assuming he's in the wrong legally as well as morally) - so that you dont have to continue living in this limboland and can get on with your life one way or the other.
I do know what its like having an axe hanging over your head and wondering whether its going to fall or no and, if so, when - so I sympathise.
EDIT: just checked the TUC website:
http://www.tuc.org.uk/tuc/rights_main.cfm
This is a webpage with links to their free employment booklets and further down the page is how to buy this book - "Your Rights at work" - £9.99.0 -
I'm in a similar situation to Ben. My boss has just employed someone who is on a 12 week probationary period. It says in the handbook they have the right to terminate your contract at any point during your probationary period, and when I started over 4 years ago I was told I wouldn't even have a proper contract till I'd successfully completed the probationary period and they were happy with me.
Anyway, the new employee's been there 3 weeks now, and 2 weeks ago my boss said they were cutting all our contract hours by a certain percentage. I've refused this and said there is an employee on probationary so it would make sense to not employ them on a permanant contract as I can't afford to lose any of my contract. He says legally they can't get rid of the new employee (which I think is totally wrong) and he can cut my hours. But I'm sure its effectively giving my hours away. Please help with ANY ideas or opinions0 -
I called ACAS and i'm even more confused now. According to them he would have to give me 7 weeks notice for each year worked and at the end of that period if I was not to agree he would therefore be making my 40 hour a week contract redundant, so I would therefore be able to take redundancy?
Is this not correct?
Be very careful with ACAS, some advisers are great, some dreadful. The above is not true. He needs to consult etc as other people have said, however, even if you protest, he can force the new contractual term by essentially breaching your old contract and starting the new terms. You then have four options:
1. If you object to this you would be entitled to resign of course, claiming constructive dismissal by reason of your employer breaching your contract.
2. Continue to work, in doing so accepting his breach of contract
3. Continue to work for a short time, but under protest, make a written grievance (do this before April 5th, as the law is changing) by protesting you are not accepting the breach, so you can still leave and follow point 1. should the grievance not be resolved to your satisfaction
4. Request to be considered for redundancy (not a right though, despite what someone else has said, unless the position you presently work has diminished in relation to more than just hours)
Get professional advice, is hard to advise on full situation here, don't rely on ACAS for anymore than the basic.
You may feel like you are in limbo, but your employer is under a duty to consult, so will not be able to give immediate reply. I appreciate it is hard for you to have a paycut, but maybe the employer's alternative is actually making job losses and to him this seemed the lesser of two evils?
Anyway, good luck0 -
I'm in a similar situation to Ben. My boss has just employed someone who is on a 12 week probationary period. It says in the handbook they have the right to terminate your contract at any point during your probationary period, and when I started over 4 years ago I was told I wouldn't even have a proper contract till I'd successfully completed the probationary period and they were happy with me.
Anyway, the new employee's been there 3 weeks now, and 2 weeks ago my boss said they were cutting all our contract hours by a certain percentage. I've refused this and said there is an employee on probationary so it would make sense to not employ them on a permanant contract as I can't afford to lose any of my contract. He says legally they can't get rid of the new employee (which I think is totally wrong) and he can cut my hours. But I'm sure its effectively giving my hours away. Please help with ANY ideas or opinions
Your boss is a fool if he is being truthful, (but I suspect this newbie might be a cheaper option and that's why they are staying), it is always easier and safer to get rid of someone with less than a year's service, unless the reason is discriminatory0 -
I'll second Calvin.. and yep I would regard it as my boss giving away some of my hours and think "How nice of him to give some of my money to someone else...." - only it would be phrased rather more strongly than that in my mind..:cool: Where your employer IS being naive is to expect that he will have "peace and harmony" in an office where one employee has stolen some of another employees money in effect - though you cant "have a go" at the probationer themself - as they would have known nothing of this and would have taken the job in all innocence that they were being "used" - ie as a vehicle to do part of someone else's job more cheaply.0
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